Crawling Knee Pad Tutorial Sewing

Materials Needed:
Fabric (i used a woven cotton),
nursing pads (or cotton knit , fleece, bamboo/cotton velour, or any fabric for padding), elastic

Aaliya started crawling 2 weeks ago(8 months old) and I was worried that the tiles on the floor would be a bit hard for her to crawl on. It is still really hot here so she isn’t wearing pants all that often. I looked online for a tutorial to make some crawling knee pads but I couldn’t find any…. so I attempted it myself.

Please remember that i’m still new at sewing so this may not be the ‘right’ way to do it… but it is the way that i did it.

First , I decided to use some old nursing pads to use as the padding part (you can easily substitute this for 2-3 layers of another fabric like knit, bamboo/cotton velour, anything that will give padding. Just cut them in desired circle size and sew the layers together)

I measured my nursing pads and then created a circle picture in photoshop elements..(i made the circle 4 by 4″.) I cut that out then cut 4 layers of my printed fabric.

I measured around Aaliya’s thigh area and knees and subtracted an inch for the elastic.

I cut my elastic at 6.5 inches and 5 inches.
I used Fold Over Elastic because it was pretty and soft but if I had to make these again I would use normal elastic since it wouldn’t be as slippery on pants.

The fold over elastic doesn’t stitck to the pants since it is so soft so the knee pads move around a little. This would definitely be remedied by using normal elastic which has a tighter hold.
Place two fabric circles right sides together and insert the elastic leaving a little on the edge as shown in the pictures.

Sew around using a 1/4 inch seam allowance and leave enough place for turning AND for stuffing the padding in. (Don’t forget to remove pins while sewing). I stitch a few times(backstitching) over all elastic area to reinforce the elastic.

Trim the excess… (make sure not to cut through any stitching)

Turn over and stuff padding inside, you should be left with something that looks similar to this…(but obviously prettier since u probably have more sewing experience than me hehe)

Tuck in the edges of the area u left open and topstitch around the whole thing. (Make sure to use the same color thread for this part so that it looks neat)

I then did a heart applique on a blank shirt… It was my first time using the satin stitch and second time doing applique.. its fun! I made a matching fabric flower too.

And she’s off!

(yep… I can see that…
NOTE: Do Not Use Fold Over Elastic… use REGULAR elastic.
Reason:the knee pads will roll up as in the pic above.. next time I will make sure to use normal elastic)

I know that kids don’t have knee caps yet but it is a light layer of padding and I do think its a little more comfortable for them. Sort of like crawling on carpet.

I hope you found this useful 🙂 If you know of any other way I’d love to hear it since I think these are pretty cute and unique. I would love to try it again.